Romeo and Juliet

As one of the world's greatest love stories Romeo and Juliet continues to excite new theatre-goers, readers and film-goers. This collection of contemporary essays raises topical debates about the nature of love conventions, as well as offering new insights into Shakespeare's text. This imaginative selection of new critical essays provides a range of contemporary approaches from psychoanalytical to cultural materialist and film theory. An original introduction by the editor seeks to explain the perennial appeal of Romeo and Juliet to young audiences. Included are essays by Catherine Belsey from a deconstructionist point of view, Dympna Callaghan from the viewpoint of feminism and new historicism, and Barbara Hodgdon on Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet. Unique to this collection is the inclusion of the fascinating and little-known dramatic 'practice piece' by Bertolt Brecht, called The Servants. The collection as a whole demonstrates the plurality of recent critical approaches, and it also illuminates aspects of Shakespeare's plays which are not noticed in more traditional approaches. The range of critical views open up new ways of re-reading and restaging all of Shakespeare's plays. As one of the world's greatest love stories Romeo and Juliet continues to excite new theatre-goers, readers and film-goers. Its depiction of tragic lovers strikes a chord in each generation of young people, and seems to speak in their own idiom. As such, it reflects, and allows us to analyse, changing attitudes to sex in a violent world. This collection of contemporary essays raises topical debates about the nature of love conventions, as well as offering new insights into Shakespeare's text.